Flori Cooks

A couple of days ago my daughter, Star called me saying, “I’m sure you’ve sent this before and I promise to file it this time. Please send me your latke recipe.” She called while I was having latkes for lunch on my first day on my new exciting job as the Development Director of a stupendous start-up nonprofit called the L.A. Kitchen. Check us out at www.LAKitchen.org and be sure to sign up for the newsletter so that you are notified when our new site rolls out next week. If you art in the LA area keep an eye out for a building dedication and open house after the first of the year.

Back to latkes – I checked my recipe files and found that I had never actually written down the recipe. That seemed odd. I checked around the site too and found that while I had mentioned latkes (notably in my post about chicken fat and one about having latkes with the girls) again, no recipe. So, dear readers, today’s the day. The final (8^th) day of Chanukah starts at sundown tonight, but it’s never the wrong time for latkes! Enjoy!

Yesterday was Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Chanukah at City Hall. LA’s first elected Jewish mayor (yeah, really!) called in the Jewish Federation and the Counsel General of Israel to participate. It was great seeing former colleagues from the Fed and other friends who work in City government but the best was watching the mayor’s daughter Maya steal the show – 3^rd generation political family…her father had to wrestle her for the microphone.

I called to wish Amanda a happy 8^th birthday last night and asked how the latkes were that she made on Monday. She declared that not only were they excellent but that she was going to be an even better cook than I was because she had started so young. I totally believe her! Check out Star’s latkes! At first I thought that was a poached egg on top: that would be a winning idea!

We are closing in on the end of an amazing trip. I have seen and learned so much. I am full to overflowing – colors, tastes, emotions, information not least of all.

After a week in Oaxaca meeting women putting their lives on the line to fight for themselves, their daughters and others we moved on to Mexico City. A walk through the streets and parks and then the Frida Kahlo museum today. Overwhelmed by the house, the garden and an exhibition of her beautiful dresses and the stark contrast to the braces, corsets and prosthetic leg that were under them. So in need of rest for my body and brain, I have holed up in my room abandoning an educational session that I know I would be unable to absorb. I have tracked down a glass of Valle del Guadalupe Cabernet which is quite good and is working well to loosen the kinks.

Tomorrow we will meet NGOs based here including a women’s political theatre troupe. I am looking forward to that in a big way.

I will write more after I have digested both the experience and the sabor of this trip.

This is certainly not what I have had in mind in thinking about getting back to blogging. It is not my normal post about food though there’s some smelly cat food and a mouse at the end.

One night in the fall of 1999 a small grey and white kitten hesitantly approached me when I got out of my car in the dark. It was nervous and I could not get close to it as it kept a safe distance between us. I went in the house, but by the time I returned with some food he was gone.

The following spring Pokey cat, who never missed a meal, did not come in when I called her for dinner. I grew increasingly worried as the evening wore on. She finally showed up at the back door about 10:30. I brought her in and closed the door. A few minutes later there was a meowing in the back yard and when I looked out the door a grey streak disappeared over the fence. I went back to the other room and this sequence repeated until I eventually went to bed. Starting the next day there were certain unmistakable signs in my house when I came home from work that only a male cat can leave behind… It occurred to me that the logical solution was to capture this stray, get him fixed and at least have him as a polite neighbor, if a wild one. Well, the capture was no easy thing to accomplish. It took 6 weeks!

Everyday I would put food outside the back door, at first sitting quietly out of sight in the other room and gradually getting closer, letting him see me, sitting on the floor inside while he ate just outside the door. Finally I was able to touch him before he would bolt. I discovered the softest silkiest fur that any cat has ever had. Finally the day came when I snatched him up, put him in a box, tossed the box in the back of the car and went straight to the vet where they snipped him into submission. I’ll teach you to trust me, cat!  The vet said he had a heart condition and as I later learned asthma due to nerves. He was not expected to have a long cat life. I had no intention of keeping him, anyway; he was bound for a no kill shelter perhaps or just to live out his life in the wilds of West Hollywood.

When the winter turned cold he took to demanding entry to the house at night and when one night I woke to find him sleeping on my feet I knew the die was cast. When I next moved I packed him up along with the 2 girls and off we went together to our next home. One middle-aged woman with 3 cats qualifies as crazy cat lady, so I justified it by saying that I had Pokey and Mao; Pokey had Willie. That’s way less crazy, don’t you think?

Pokey died in early 2011 and Mao, never separated from her, followed later that year. Willie, who has undergone a true personality transformation – from the cat that no one could touch to the one that wanders into neighbors houses, climbs into laps and is loving and true, took his last trip to the vet today. He ate some smelly liver cat food and got into the cat carrier practically on his own. It’s the Day of the Dead; the veil is thin. Maybe Pokey and Mao are waiting. If they are, Mao has a freshly caught mouse for Will to enjoy.

I had the most lovely spring evening on Thursday night. I went to the South Pasadena farmers’ market, picked up some basic produce along with one of my favorite short season items. I generally buy this just once a year and then they are gone! Arugula flowers and the tiny leaves are peppery and taste of pure new growth. This salad is so simple – a good bunch of the leaves and flowers, a tomato and a cucumber – dressed with olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Saturday lunch on the porch.

My friend Heidi caught up with me as I finished shopping and we stopped at the charming Nicole’s for dinner: Fava Bean Soup and an Oak-Smoked Salmon Salad.

Or call it Mexican matzo brei; it’s all the same.

Break up half a matzo board in big chunks Ina bowl and toss with a couple of tablespoons of either red or green salsa. Allow a few minutes for the matzo to soak up some of the liquid. Add an egg and scramble witH a fork. Fry in olive oil as you would scrambled eggs. Don’t over cook. Garnish with chopped cilantro.